Ode to my Senseis 2: Dragon-Sensei -

Profil3 for some reason cuts my blogs in half, so here's the other half.

Dragon Sensei

A Dragon, in Karate, is someone who's agressive and impulsive. They scare me to death as well. Luckily we have only three Dragons in our Dojo.

Dragon-Sensei is from Yorkshire, England. She moved here 18 years ago. Her Dutch isn't very good, so she often inserts English words or shifts to English completely. Nobody makes a point out of that. (Y' hear that, Grammar Nazis?) She's a Black Belt Karateka and has done some Wado Ryu as well.

She's married to Tiger-Sensei, but they couldn't possibly differ more from each other.

Dragon-Sensei is taller than me and built a bit like a man; her shoulders aren't very bulky, but she has a long upper body and smal hips. From behind she really looks like a man.

I'm really scared of her too.

When sparring she sometimes gets carried away by what she's doing and loses control a little. On one occasion I kiaied (yelled) in her face and shocked her so badly that she kiaied back and punched me SO hard in the ribs that I gasped for air and fled off, while Tiger-Sensei cried "SHE'S A WHITE BELT, DRAGON!" And when she fights her moves are so quickly all I can do is defend; I can't place a blow myself. Seriously, the only Karateka who could possibly be a match for her is Tiger-Sensei.

She had to do a Monkey-line once (to show how it's done) and for that she has to "beat" some opponents. The last opponent wil be thrown to the floor and will be taken "hostage". The hostage will be held and encouraged to scream for the others to go away. I was the last opponent in line, so I was ran at her and yelled "LAST!"

"Ah." she said, and nodded.

Half a second later I was on the floor; she held my bangs and my belt and sat on me with one knee on my hip and one on my shoulder. Then she moved one hand over to my eyes (aaaahhhh) and one to my throat and she yelled:

*Dutch* "Go away! Her eyes I got! Tell them they go away!"

Me: *Dutch* "Okay, okay, go go go!"

Dragon-Sensei: "I stick out her eyes!"

Me: *Dutch* "Go away already!"

Dragon-Sensei: *English all of a sudden* "I MEAN IT!"

Me: *English* "SHE DOES!"

Then every started laughing and the fight was over.

She's not as actively involved in the lessons as Tiger-Sensei. She for example doesn't roam the Dojo to look for mistakes; she most of the time leaves that to Tiger. But when she does see a mistake she'll point that out as well. In contradiction to Tiger-Sensei, who grabs your arm or whatever limb that's going wrong to let you "feel" how it's right, she'll tell you how it's done. When she's talking her voice is soft, but when she's fighting she's got one of the loudest voices of the Dojo and she has a crazy and insane laugh.

When we do a Bunkai-Kata (a Kata in which one person really knocks out a few opponents) the winner laughs at the opponents when the Kata's over. Most of the time, at demonstrations, Dragon-Sensei does the Bunkai, probably because of her wild Kiais and her laugh. My brother came to a lesson once and asked for her "dragon laugh".

She looked at him bewildered. And then she didn't dare to laugh.

So I offered to be her opponent; she'd grab me, throw me to the floor and then laugh.

She agreed and we stood there facing each other. She looked at me and gravely told me (in English): "Fockin' hell!"

Me: "That's much worse."

She laughed (normally), grabbed me by my belt and arm and threw me hard on the floor. Then she laughed and laughed and laughed, while I was on the floor "dead", trying to hold my own laughter. Ever seen a Takarazuka version of Elisabeth? Well, she laughs like Shi (Death).

When you make her laugh she shows affection by hitting you somewhere and while I was getting up she hit me so hard on my back and my ass that I was back on the floor again. XD

I'm an English student and she helps me practice a little; so now and then we talk English when our training's done. She knows I appreciate that and maybe she likes talking English so now and then as well. I don't know about that.

My Senseis, as I said, are married. They're not evil, or so. They're very very nice. They're not "sticky" either. It took me half a year to find out they were lesbian and after that my appreciation for them did not change or fade, or whatever. Fact: they're fantastic people.

Yesterday we were training on a beach and since I have no driver's license and we were living in the same street I rode along with them. On the way back they had a beautiful "married couple conversation".

They'd both had one beer (well, Dragon had had one beer, Tiger had had half a beer because she had accidentally spilled the other half straight into my lap) and Dragon was driving. When we got back she was apparently having troubles parking.

Dragon-Sensei: *English* "Good God, it's the beer..."

Me: *tries to hold back laughter*

Tiger-Sensei: *Dutch* "Honey, I think the bicycle-stand is scraping over the pavement."

Dragon-Sensei: *Dutch* "Nope, Ka, it's too high for that."

Me: *tries to hold back laughter VERY hard*

Tiger-Sensei: "Sweety, I just know it is the bicycle stand."

XD

It was the only time in 2.5 years I heard them call each other "sweetie" and "honey"; they're totally unromantic... XD

I'm out of time, I'll write more later.

Domo arigatou!

The Dojo-deer.